.3 


LIBRARY    OF    THE    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,     N.    J. 
PRESENTED  BY 

PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY 


BV  205  .H23  1874 

Hall,  Newman.. 
The  reasonableness  and 
efficacy  of  prayer 


THE 


Reasonablen 


AND 


Efficacy  of  Prayer. 


BY 


REV.  NEWMAN  HALL,,  D.D. 


BOSTON: 

NOYES,  HOLMES,  &   COMPANY, 

219  Washington  Street. 

1S74. 


author's  editiox. 


Cambridge  : 
Press  of  JoJin  Wilson  &'  Sou. 


THE    REASONABLENESS 


EFFICACY     OF     PRAYER. 


Prayer  is  an  essential  element  in  all  religion 
worthy  of  the  name ;  and  religion  is  inseparably 
connected  with  the  history  of  the  human  race. 
In  some  form  or  other,  with  seeming  exceptions 
so  insignificant  as  to  illustrate  the  rule,  all  nations, 
in  all  ages,  have  worshipped  God ;  all  nations,  in 
all  ages,  have  prayed. 

To  borrow  the  words  of  Guizot :  "  Alone,  of 
all  living  beings  on  the  earth,  man  prays.  There 
is  not  among  all  his  moral  instincts  a  more  uni- 
versal, a  more  invincible  one  than  jjrayer.  The 
child  betakes  himself  to  it  with  ready  docility* 
aged  men  return  to  it  as  a  refuge  against  decay 


4  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

and  isolation.  Prayer  rises  spontaneously  from 
young  lips  that  can  scarcely  lisp  the  name  of 
God,  and  from  expiring  ones  that  have  scarcely 
strength  left  to  pronounce  it.  Among  every  peo- 
ple, celebrated  or  obscure,  civilized  or  barbarous, 
acts  and  formulaB  of  prayer  meet  us  at  every  step. 
Everywhere  there  are  living  men,  under  certain 
circumstances,  at  certain  hours,  under  certain 
impressions  of  the  soul,  whose  eyes  are  raised, 
whose  hands  are  clasped,  whose  knees  are  bent 
to  implore,  or  thank,  or  adore,  or  appease.  With 
joy  or  terror,  publicly  or  in  the  secret  of  his  own 
heart,  it  is  to  prayer  man  turns  as  a  last  resource 
to  fill  the  void  places  of  his  soul,  or  bear  the 
burdens  of  his  life.  It  is  in  prayer  he  seeks, 
when  all  else  fails,  a  suj^port  for  his  weakness, 
comfort  in  his  sorrows,  and  hope  for  his  virtue." 

Especially  is  prayer  identified  with  Christianity. 
As  faith  is  the  essence  of  the  divine  life  in  the 
soul,  so  prayer  is  the  first  evidence  and  constant 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER. 


exercise  of  that  life.  The  religion  of  the  Bible, 
both  in  its  Jewish  and  Christian  forms,  teaches 
men  to  pray  to  a  personal  God,  who  does  listen 
and  will  answer.  In  all  ages  there  have  been 
men  who  are  represented  as  having  been  specially 
instructed  and  aided  by  God,  who  have  lived  in 
the  constant  practice  of  prayer.  From  Genesis 
to  Revelation  the  ascription  goes  up,  —  "  O  Thou 
that  hearest  prayer,  unto  Thee  shall  all  flesh 
come." 

"But,"  says  an  objector,  " are  we  not  already 
in  the  presence  of  God,  —  if  there  be  a  God  ?  By 
the  necessity  of  things  we  cannot  be  absent  from 
those  powers  of  Nature  which  you  call  God,  and 
which  operate  throughout  the  universe.  Where, 
then,  is  the  necessity  of  coming  into  a  Presence 
where  we  are  already  ?  "  But  in  this  sense  every 
sparrow  is  in  the  presence  of  God,  and  we  are 
of  more  value  than  many  sparrows.  Nay,  every 
blade  of  grass,  every  drop  of  water,  every  grain 


6  THE    REASONABLENESS   AND 

of  sand  is  already  there.  Cannot  we  in  any 
higher  sense  come  before  God  ?  Is  there  not  a 
coming  to  Him  which  is  in  harmony  with  our 
superior  nature,  —  a  voluntary  approach,  a  coming 
of  the  mind  and  heart  and  soul,  —  such  a  coming 
as  we  call  prayer? 

And  if  so,  may  we  not  infer  a  corresponding 
act  on  the  part  of  God?  To  be  convinced  of 
this  is  a  necessity  for  those  who  pray,  else  their 
petitions  would  be  absurd.  No  one  would  make 
a  request  to  a  person  of  whose  existence  he  was 
ignorant,  or  in  whose  favorable  disposition  he 
had  no  confidence.  So  "  he  that  cometh  to  God 
must  believe  that  He  is,  and  that  He  is  the 
rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  Him." 
We  are  not  taught  by  these  words  that  our 
belief  w^ill  be  rewarded  by  a  favorable  reply,  but 
that  it  is  an  absolutely  necessary  prerequisite 
for  prayer  itself.  As  we  cannot  walk  without 
feet,  nor  see  without  eyes,  so  we  cannot  pray 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER. 


without  some  degi'ee  of  belief  in  the  existence 
of  Him  whom  we  address,  and  in  His  power  and 
disposition  to  grant  our  request. 

But  there  have  always  been  sceptics  who  doubt 
and  scoffers  who  deride  ;  and  old  missiles,  newly 
polished,  have  recently  been  launched  by  skilful 
hands  against  the  citadel  of  Faith,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  discrediting  Prayer  as  being  contrary  to 
a  universal  experience  of  the  uniformity  of  nat- 
ural law,  and  therefore  unreasonable.  We  have 
been  told  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  case 
in  former  times.  Science  knows  nothing  of  a 
personal  God  acting  now,  but  only  observes  a 
chain  of  physical  causes  and  sequences,  —  a  sys- 
tem of  laws  invariable  in  their  operations  and 
certain  in  their  fulfilment.  We  are  told  that  as 
the  course  of  nature  never  is  and  never  can  be 
changed,  it  is  wrong  to  ask  it,  and  absurd  to 
expect  it. 

We  do  not  pause  to  inquire  how  far  such  an 


8  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

objection  strikes  at  the  root  of  all  the  religions 
of  mankind;  but  it  is  certainly  opposed  to  the 
most  cherished  belief  and  the  habitual  worship 
of  all  Christians,  who,  whatever  their  differences, 
believe  alike  in  a  God  who  hears  and  answers 
prayer,  and  who  therefore  have  a  common  in- 
terest in  a  subject  of  vital  importance  to  them 
all. 

Because  it  is  of  such  vital  importance,  there  is 
some  danger  lest  we  should  feel  angry  with  our 
assailants.  It  is  natural  to  be  incensed  against 
those  who  would  rob  us  of  any  treasure,  —  and 
this  in  proportion  to  its  value:  yet  the  more 
firmly  we  are  convinced  of  its  security,  the  less 
are  we  likely  to  be  irritated  by  vain  threats. 
Documents  enclosed  in  a  fire-proof  safe  cannot 
be  hurt  by  a  match  ignited  outside.  An  iron- 
plated  ship  may  defy  pop-guns.  Firm  faith  is 
not  soon  frightened.  "He  that  believeth  shall 
not  make  haste." 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  9 

It  must  be  admitted  that  some  defenders  of 
Cliristianity,  by  their  hasty  fright  at  the  discov- 
eries and  theories  of  philosophers,  have  given 
occasion  for  the  suspicion  that  their  own  faith 
was  not  very  strong.  The  fatal  impression  has 
gone  forth  that  Science  is  regarded  by  them  as 
opposed  to  Revelation.  But  Science,  so  far  from 
being  an  enemy,  is  the  handmaid  of  Religion. 
Philosophers,  engaged  in  their  true  work,  are 
helping,  not  hindering,  the  faith.  All  honor  and 
gratitude  to  those  who  are  devoting  their  learn- 
ing and  genius  to  the  great  business  of  examining 
and  explaining  the  wonders  of  the  physical  uni- 
verse ;  for  the  facts  of  nature  are  the  works  of 
our  God  and  Father,  —  which,  the  better  they 
are  understood,  enlarge  our  conceptions  of  His 
wisdom,  powei",  and  goodness,  and  furnish  us 
with  fresh  material  for  praise. 

Hitherto  we  have  treated  the  subject  on  the 
assumed   truth   of  the   Bible.     If  the   Bible   be 


10  THE    REASONABLENESS   AND 

divine,  prayer  is  reasonable.  Let  us  now  try  to 
meet  tlie  arguments  of  those  who  do  not  admit 
the  authority  of  the  book.  - 

The  chief  objection  to  prayer  is  based  on 
the  supposed  uniformity  of  natural  laws.  The 
argument  seems  to  be,  —  "We  know  nothing 
of  any  deviation  from  the  course  of  nature; 
therefore  there  is  none,  and  can  be  none.  It  is, 
therefore,  unreasonable  to  expect  any  such  devi- 
ation in  answer  to  prayer,  and  therefore  un- 
reasonable to  pray." 

In  such  an  objection  we  presume  to  think  there 
may  be  some  fallacies,  which  those  who  exact  so 
much  accuracy  from  others  should  themselves 
avoid.  Do  sceptical  philosophers  never  forget  the 
laws  of  exact  science  when  they  assail  the  faith 
of  Christians?  Do  the  lovers  of  positive  truth 
never  jump  at  conclusions  somewhat  beyond  the 
bounds  of  positivity,  and  in  a  manner  they  would 
condemn  in  their  own  scientific  investisrations  ? 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  H 

Ignorance  seems  to  be  confounded  with  knowl- 
edge. It  is  supposed  that  our  not  knowing  a 
fact  is  ptoof  of  the  fact  not  existing.  "  I  do  not 
know  that  a  certain  event  ever  happened ;  there- 
fore, I  know  it  never  did  happen."  But  surely- 
far  more  is  here  inferred  than  is  contained  in  the 
premises.  In  proportion  to  the  range  of  my  in- 
vestigation my  non-discovery  of  something  may 
render  me  cautious  how  I  admit  the  testimony 
of  another  explorer;  but  surely  my  failure  to 
discover  it  would  not  warrant  my  assertion  that 
it  is  undiscoverable,  because  non-existent.  I 
may  have  spent  my  life  in  exploring  the  physical 
universe,  but  have  I  yet  reached  the  outmost 
bounds  of  it  ?  Have  I  examined  every  thing 
within  it?  Is  it  safe  to  reason  from  the  little 
province  I  may  know  something  of,  so  as  to  dog- 
matize as  to  what  can  or  cannot  exist  through- 
out the  vast  empire  of  God?  From  what  I 
know  of  the   phenomena  of  fifty  years,  may  I 


12  THE   REASONABLENESS  AND 

pronounce  an  infallible  judgment  as  to  what 
always  was  and  always  will  be  ?  Is  my  ignorance 
of  a  thing's  existence  equivalent  to  my  knowl- 
edge of  its  non-existence? 

If  so,  the  barbarian  prince  was  w^ise  when  he 
condemned  to  death  as  an  impostor  the  traveller 
who  told  him  that  in  his  country  people  walked 
on  water  and  chopped  it  with  axes.  There  is  a 
mountain  in  Eastern  Africa  called  the  Silver 
Mountain.  A  friend  of  the  writer  described  the 
first  ascent  of  it  by  himself.  He  could  not  per- 
suade his  native  attendants  to  accompany  him 
the  last  few  hundred  yards.  After  a  very  diffi- 
cult climb  he  reached  the  "  silver,"  and  brought 
some  of  it  down  to  his  guides.  Not  till  they 
saw  the  rapidly  melting  snow,  would  they  aban- 
don their  persuasion  that  the  mountain  was 
crested  with  the  precious  metal.  They  had 
known  silver,  but  had  never  seen  snow ;  but  were 
they  right  in  their  inference  ^     Would  it  have 


EFFICACY   OF  PRAYER.  13 

been  wise  if  before  comets  had  been  observed 
astronomers  had  denied  the  possibility  of  their 
existence  ?  If  the  inhabitants  of  an  inland  dis- 
trict were  told  that  the  waters  of  the  river  they 
had  always  known  as  sweet  and  as  flowing  west- 
ward became  salt  and  sometimes  flowed  east- 
ward, would  they  be  wise  in  denying  it?  Be- 
cause they  had  never  seen  nor  heard  of  this, 
would  they  be  philosophical  in  asserting  that  it 
never  was  and  never  could  be? 

Grant  that  the  knowledge  of  a  barbarian  or  a 
child  is  far  less  than  that  of  a  philosopher ;  but 
is  not  the  knowledge  of  a  philosopher  that  of  a 
child  compared  with  what  is  still  unknown  ?  Is 
it  not  but  the  sea-shore  pebble  to  which  Newton 
likened  his  discoveries,  while  the  great  ocean 
of  truth  rolled  undiscovered  before  him  ?  If  I 
am  ignorant  of  a  fact,  I  cannot  of  course  afiirm 
its  actual  or  even  probable  existence ;  but  is  it 
philosophical   to   deny  its   possibility,  especially 


14  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

when  I  have  authentic  testimony  that  others 
have  witnessed  it?  Therefore,  although  we  may 
never  have  witnessed  any  deviation  from  the 
course  of  nature,  it  is  not  unphilosophical  to 
admit  the  possibility,  nor  even  to  acknowledge 
the  fact  on  authentic  testimony. 

Another  fallacy  results  from  the  ambiguous 
meaning  of  the  term  law.  In  government  a 
law  is  an  edict,  made  by  competent  authority 
and  executed  by  the  appointed  officer.  But  what 
is  law  in  the  realm  of  nature  ?  Do  positive  phil- 
osophers see  it  or  hear  it?  Where  is  it  writ- 
ten, and  by  whom  enforced?  We  observe 
resemblances  in  natural  phenomena.  We  notice 
how  similar  results  follow  similar  causes.  We 
then  imagine  a  law  which  those  events  obey. 
But  this  is  the  realm  of  imagination,  not  of  exact 
science.     This  is  not  consistent  Positivism. 

We  are  told  of  the  "  operation  of  laws."  They 
are  said  to  '*  work."     But  who  ever  saw  a  law 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  15 

work?  We  see  the  constable,  the  judge,  the 
sheriff  executing  the  law  in  reference  to  crime ; 
but  the  law  itself  does  nothing^:  it  needs  an  asjent. 
How,  then,  can  the  laws  of  nature  work?  They 
need  an  agent  capable  of  fulfilling  them.  It  is 
God  who  works.  From  the  wise  and  beneficent 
regularity  of  His  operations,  we  deduce  that  He 
has  a  plan  on  which  to  work.  But  that  plan  is 
the  product  of  His  wisdom  and  goodness,  and  all 
that  happens  is  the  working  of  His  own  right 
hand.  Does  our  ignorance  of  His  having  worked 
exceptionally,  warrant  our  assertion  that  He  never 
has  done  so,  and  never  can  ? 

A  fallacy  often  arises  from  the  ambiguous 
meaning  of  the  word  necessity.  We  sometimes 
speak  of  a  necessary  truth,  when  the  question  is 
one  merely  of  words.  To  say  that  the  whole  is 
necessarily  equal  to  the  sum  of  its  parts,  is  merely 
to  express  what  is  involved  in  the  terms  them- 
selves.    There  are  propositions  which  we  say  are 


16  THE   REASONABLENESS  AND 

necessarily  true,  because  the  mind  cannot  possibly 
conceive  of  thera  otherwise.  Thus  it  is  a  neces- 
sity that  things  which  are  equal  to  the  same 
thing  are  equal  to  one  another.  We  say  there 
is  a  physical  necessity  that  a  certain  weight 
requires  an  adequate  force  to  move  it;  or  a 
financial  necessity  that  expenditure  requires  an 
adequate  income  to  sustain  it.  But  what  is 
meant  by  the  term  necessity  when  applied  to 
the  course  of  nature,  so  as  to  exclude  the  influ- 
ence of  prayer?  Would  there  be  any  logical 
contradiction  and  absurdity  if  events  were  to 
happen  otherwise  than  we  expect  ?  Do  we  know 
of  any  absolute  law  which  natural  events  cannot 
possibly  violate  ?  Have  we  any  right  to  affirm 
more  than  this,  —  that  we  observe  a  certain  regu- 
lar sequence  of  phenomena;  that  as  far  as  our 
own  limited  observation  and  knowledge  extend, 
we  are  aware  of  no  deviation ;  and  that,  there- 
fore, we  may  expect  similar  phenomena  in  the 


EFFICACY   OF  PRAYER.  17 

future?  But  regularity  is  not  necessity.  We 
expect  the  sun  to  shine  to-morrow  ;  we  expect  it 
with  the  utmost  degree  of  certainty.  But  is  this 
the  same  as  absolute  necessity?  Does  the  con- 
ceiDtion  of  its  not  rising  involve  a  logical  contra- 
diction or  a  mathematical  absurdity  ?  Gravitation 
is  a  great  fact,  but  can  we  assert  that  of  necessity 
it  is  universal  and  eternal  in  its  influence  ?  Is  it 
of  necessity  that  there  can  be  no  part  of  the 
universe  where  it  does  not  operate,  or  that  it 
could  not  be  suspended?  We  say  that  a  certain 
power  is  necessary  in  order  to  overcome  a  certain 
weight.  But  are  there  not  powers  of  which  we 
are  ignorant,  and  might  not  that  weight  be  raised 
by  agencies  beyond  our  range  of  experience  ? 

There  have  already  been  departures  from  what 
had  seemed  to  be  the  necessary  course  of  nature. 
If  the  universe  itself  is  not  eternal,  should  any 
change  in  that  universe  be  regarded  as  impossible 
in  face  of  the  greater  event  of  its  origin?  There 
2 


18  THE  REASONABLENESS  AND 

are  obvious  records  of  change  in  the  strata  of  the 
earth's  surface.  There  have  been  successive  con- 
structions and  destructions.  Why  should  it  be  a 
necessity  that  all  things  remain  for  ever  as  they 
now  are,  when  they  are  not  now  as  they  once 
were? 

It  is  replied  that  these  changes  are  only  differ- 
ent stages  of  development  of  eternal  necessary 
forces.  Since  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  is 
some  eternal  existence,  we  prefer  to  believe  in 
an  eternal  God  who  governs  all  things,  rather 
than  in  eternal  forces  without  thought,  or  feeling, 
or  character.  We  believe  in  "God  the  Father 
Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth."  He  is 
the  only  necessity :  He  is  necessarily  what  He  is ; 
but  He  is  free,  and  if  He  chooses  to  act  according 
to  some  plan  which  you  call  the  necessary  order 
of  nature,  and  if  what  we  call  changes  you  call 
developments  of  the  eternal  order,,  may  not  my 
prayer  and  may  not  His  response  be   parts   of 


EFFICACY   OF  PRAYER.  19 

that  eternal  order;  and  may  He  not  help  me  in 
some  way  which  to  me  is  new  and  unexpected 
and  contrary  to  what  I  know  of  the  order  of 
things,  but  which  may  yet  be  in  harmony  with 
that  order,  as  known  and  ordained  by  Himself? 

Had  I  lived  in  earlier  ages  I  should  have  been 
ignorant  of,  and  could  not  have  anticipated,  the 
present  development.  If  so,  may  not  God  help 
me  now  in  some  manner  not  within  the  range  of 
my  experience,  yet  in  harmony  with  His  own 
perfect  plan  and  with  higher  laws  than  those 
which  philosophy  is  able  to  codify?  May  not 
what  we  call  miracles  be  parts  of  the  eternal 
order,  —  God  working  according  to  pre-arranged 
principles  which  are  developed  whenever  their 
appropriate  sphere  of  operation  opens;  and  may 
not  our  prayers  be  a  part  of  the  eternal  order, 
bringing  about  the  very  conditions  in  which  the 
results  we  pray  for  may  come  to  pass,  in  harmony 
with  the  higher  order  which  includes  moral  as 
well  as  jDhysical  forces? 


20  THE   REASONABLENESS  AND 

We  are  told  that  we  know  nothing  but  facts, 
and  that  to  these  positive  palpable  facts  we  must 
confine  our  observations.  But  is  not  our  freedom 
a  fact  in  the  Kosmos  ?  We  are  more  certain  of 
our  own  existence  than  of  the  existence  of  any 
thing  else  which  we  only  know  through  our  own 
faculties.  Thus  our  moral  freedom  —  the  power 
of  the  will  —  is  a  positive  fact ;  and  it  is  a  fact 
also  that  one  mind  can  influence  another  mind. 
By  the  expression  and  exercise  of  my  will,  I  can 
affect  the  will  of  some  one  else,  and  induce  him 
to  perform  some  action  which  otherwise  he  would 
not  perform.  May  it  not  be  a  fact  that  as  our 
minds  influence  one  another,  we  may  influence 
the  mind  of  God  ?  Is  not  His  freedom  a  fact  ? 
We  can  exercise  our  freedom  in  relation  to  the 
physical  universe  so  as  to  direct  the  powers  of 
nature  in  one  course  rather  than  another.  What 
we  can  do  in  a  lower  sphere,  cannot.  God  do  in  a 
higher?     And  if  we  can  influence  one  another  to 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  21 

do  this,  may  we  not  also  influence  God?  We 
believe  that  God  has  encouraged  us  to  do  this  in 
prayer ;  but  can  philosophy  prove  that  what  is 
actual  in  regard  to  our  own  minds  and  actions,  is 
impossible  in  relation  to  God  ? 

It  is  said  there  is  no  such  force  as  prayer  in 
the  natural  universe,  and  that  it  is  incredible  that 
any  creature  can  launch  at  will  a  new  agency  on 
the  pre-arranged  system  of  nature.  We  admit 
there  is  no  such  physical  force.  Prayer  is  a 
moral  force.  That  there  is  such  a  force  as  this, 
our  daily  experience  testifies.  We  exert  it  on 
one  another.  We  do  "  launch  at  will "  this  agency 
on  society.  Under  its  influence  the  mind  origi- 
nates new  actions,  and  gives  a  new  direction  to 
the  various  forces  of  nature.  Where  is  the  proof 
that  it  is  impossible  such  a  moral  force  may  influ- 
ence Him  who  rules  the  universe  ?  We  believe 
He  has  commanded  us  to  employ  it. 

There  are  laws  seemingly  irreversible,  which 


22  THE  REASONABLENESS  AND 

nevertheless  are  resisted  and  modified  in  their 
operation.  What  so  universal  as  the  law  of 
gravitation  ?  But  see  yonder  majestic  oak  spread- 
ing wide  its  gnarled  branches.  What  tons  of 
timber  have  been  carried  up  there  in  defiance 
of  gravitation  !  "  True  —  but  it  has  all  been 
carried  upwards,  and  is  held  there  by  another 
physical  law,  —  that  of  vegetable  life."  Still,  here 
is  an  instance  of  one  law  modifying  the  action  of 
another.  But  take  another  force.  Thought  can 
defy  gravitation ;  mind  can  control  matter.  By 
gravitation  this  book  falls ;  I  think,  and  interpose 
my  hand,  and  arrest  its  descent,  —  1  am  stronger 
than  gravitation.  I  exercise  my  will,  and  my 
arm  is  extended.  It  weighs  several  pounds,  but 
this  mass  of  matter  is  moved  in  an  instant  by  ray 
volition.  "  Oh,  but  it  is  the  muscles ! "  And  the 
muscles?  "They  are  moved  by  the  nerves." 
And  the  nerves  ?  "  They  are  stimulated  by  the 
brain."    And  the  brain  ?    That  obeys  the  mind ! 


EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  23 

By  this  outstretched  arm  moved  by  my  will,  I 
can  set  going  a  railway-train,  which  may  destroy 
life,  or  I  may  apply  the  brake,  and  preserve  many 
from  death.  I  am  made  in  the  image  of  God : 
wherein  am  I  like  to  Him  ?  Surely  this  is  one 
feature  of  resemblance,  —  that  I  have  the  powder 
by  my  will  to  originate  actions.  If  I  then  am, 
in  fact,  able  —  personally  or  by  influencing  others 
—  so  to  interpose  in  connection  with  physical 
laws  as  to  avert  evil  w^hich  would  otherwise  hap- 
pen, is  not  God  able  to  do  the  same  ?  Can  I,  His 
feeble  and  imperfect  likeness,  do  what  He  is 
unable  to  do?  Has  He  endowed  me  with  a 
faculty  He  does  not  possess?  Has  He  shut  him- 
self out  of  His  own  universe  ?  Has  He  made  any 
laws  to  bind  himself?  Is  His  wise  and  beneficent 
order  a  chain  by  which  He  is  kept  in  bondage, 
so  that  no  prayer  from  His  creatures  can  modify 
any  event,  bring  any  desired  benefit,  or  avert 
any  dreaded  calamity  ? 


24  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

It  must  be  admitted  that  many  who  deny  that 
it  is  reasonable  to  expect  special  answers  to 
prayer,  recommend  the  practice  of  prayer  as  ben- 
eficial to  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  person  who 
prays.  We  should  continue  to  pray,  though  we 
are  not  to  expect  what  we  ask.  The  act  of 
asking,  not  the  thing  we  ask,  will  bring  the 
blessing.  But  shall  we  continue  to  ask  when 
we  have  no  expectation  that  we  shall  receive? 

The  indirect  benefits  of  prayer  must  not  be 
underrated.  They  are  of  the  very  highest  value 
in  their  influence  on  our  spiritual  nature.  All 
true  prayer  cultivates  sincerity.  Whatever  mask 
we  may  assume  in  the  presence  of  man,  it  is  vain 
to  dissemble  before  God.  In  prayer  we  throw 
ofi"  our  disguises,  and  stand  revealed  in  the  divine 
light.  Thus  we  learn  to  know  ourselves,  —  to 
detect  our  hidden  faults,  —  to  test  the  real  char- 
acter of  our  motives  and  conduct.  We  learn 
also  our  true  dignity  as  human  beings.     We  have 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  25 

been  admitted  to  an  audience  of  the  King  of 
kings,  and,  coming  forth  from  His  presence-cham- 
ber, we  are  likely  to  feel  that  we  are  too  noble 
to  degrade  ourselves  with  what  is  sordid  and 
base  and  sinful.  At  the  same  time,  we  learn 
humility.  For,  if  exalted  by  intercourse  with 
God  above  what  is  degrading,  we  learn  by  con- 
trast with  Him  our  littleness,  and  can  scarcelj^, 
when  we  have  been  prostrate  before  our  Maker, 
rise  up  to  treat  with  pride  and  scorn  those  with 
whom  we  have  been  (ic)nfessing  our  unworthiness. 
True  courage  is  promoted  by  prayer.  When  we 
have  cast  ourselves  on  the  divine  protection,  and 
sought  help  in  difficulty  and  danger  from  One 
so  mighty  to  strengthen  and  save,  we  shall  more 
cheerfully  labor  at  our  toilsome  task,  —  more  pa- 
tiently bear  our  daily  burden,  —  more  valiantly 
resist  every  temptation  to  evil.  And  by  prayer 
will  gratitude  be  promoted.  What  we  have 
asked  from  God,  we  shall  be  more  likely,  when 


26  THE    REASONABLENESS  AND 

we  receive  it,  to  regard  as  His  gift.  Gratitude 
is  an  emotion  always  attended  with  pleasure  in 
its  exercise.  The  value  of  any  possession  is  en- 
hanced by  the  grateful  remembrance  of  the  giver. 
The  common  comforts  of  life  are  exalted  into 
divine  gifts  when  we  receive  them  as  from  God : 
the  humblest  fare  of  His  providing  yields  greater 
pleasure  than  the  costliest  dainties  regarded  as 
the  mere  result  of  accident  or  our  own  acquire- 
ment. Prayer  thus  dignifies  the  lowliest  as  well 
as  the  loftiest  condition,  and  refines,  elevates, 
and  gladdens  all  who  hve  in  the  habitual  practice 
of  it. 

These  indirect  and  collateral  results,  because 
more  constant,  are,  on  the  whole,  more  beneficial 
than  the  direct  answers  to  prayer.  But  would 
they  be  obtained  apart  from  the  expectation  that 
the  thing  for  which  we  pray  will  be  granted? 
The  motive  of  prayer  is  not  the  benefit  of  the 
exercise,  so  much  as  the  obtaining  of  the  boon. 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  27 

Did  Hannah  think  of  the  benefit  to  her  spiritual 
nature  when  she  asked  for  a  Uttle  son  to  conse- 
crate to  the  Lord?  She  was  thinking  only  of 
the  j^riceless  treasure  her  mother's  heart  was 
longing  for.  Was  Hezekiah  prompted  by  a  re- 
gard to  the  improvement  of  his  own  heart  when 
he  appealed  against  Sennacherib  ?  He  was  think- 
ing only  of  his  country  and  Jerusalem,  threatened 
by  the  vaunting  foe. 

A  prize  is  offered  to  the  swiftest  runner.  "  One 
hundred  pounds  for  him  who  first  reaches  the 
goal ! "  Several  prepare  to  run  for  the  prize. 
They  then  are  told  that  they  must  not  expect 
to  get  the  hundred  pounds,  but  that  the  race 
itself  and  preparation  for  it  will  be  more  valu- 
able than  gold,  as  it  will  develop  their  muscles 
and  increase  their  strength.     Who  would  run  ? 

In  the  old  fable  we  read  how  the  orchard  was 
dug  to  find  hidden  treasure.  None  was  found ; 
but  the  digging  made  the  orchard  more  fruitful, 


28  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

and  a  golden  crop  was  the  result.  But  suppose 
they  who  dug  had  been  assured  at  the  outset 
that  no  treasure  was  hidden  there,  would  they 
have  taken  up  the  spade  ? 

You  say  to  your  child,  "  It  is  very  important 
that  there  should  be  constant  intercourse  between 
us.  Always  come  to  your  father  or  mother  with 
any  sorrow  or  any  wish.  Do  not  by  day  and 
night  think  about  your  troubles,  but  come  at 
once  and  tell  me.  Do  not  for  days  and  weeks 
think  anxiously  about  something  you  would  like 
to  have,  and  do  not  talk  about  it  only  to  your 
playmates,  but  come  and  tell  me  what  you  wish, 
and  ask  me  for  it.  But  remember,  —  you  will 
never  obtain  what  you  ask  for,  nor  escape  the 
trouble  you  fear,  any  more  than  if  you  had  not 
applied  to  us.  Only  by  coming  to  us,  with  all 
your  sorrows  and  wishes,  you  will  benefit  your 
own  moral  nature!" 

I  am  ill :  I  send  for  a  physician,  entreating  him 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  29 

to  come  to  me.  I  tell  him  my  symptoms,  —  my 
pain,  —  my  fear.  I  say  to  him,  "Doctor,  you 
know  more  of  the  laws  of  disease  and  of  health 
than  I  do :  I  do  not  expect  you  to  perform  a 
miracle ;  but  I  do  ask  you  to  consider  carefully 
my  case,  and  to  apply  your  knowledge  of  natural 
laws  in  such  a  way  as  to  relieve  my  pain  and  save 
my  life."  The  physician  listens  to  my  appeal, 
undertakes  my  case,  prescribes  the  suitable  reme- 
dies, and,  without  a  miracle,  effects  a  cure.  By 
the  laws  of  disease,  without  his  interposition,  my 
death  was  inevitable  ;  but  in  answer  to  my  prayer 
he  saves  my  life.  Cannot  God  do  what  the  doc- 
tor does  ? 

Your  little  boy  is  playing  on  the  window-sill. 
See,  he  slips!  he  is  falling!  "Father!  father!" 
You  run  to  save  him,  and  catch  him  in  your 
arms.  The  laws  of  gravitation  would  have  killed 
him;  but  in  answer  to  his  cry  you  have  inter- 
posed, and,  without  a  miracle,  have   saved   his 


30  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

life.  Cannot  God  do  what  you  can  do?  Are 
there  not  occasions  when  we  feel  ourselves  fall- 
ing, and  no  help  is  near,  and  our  only  resource 
is  to  cry  to  our  Father,  who  has  said,  — "  Call 
upon  me  in  the  day  of  trouble,  and  I  will  deliver 
thee"? 

We  who  accept  the  Scriptures  as  the  Word  of 
God  have  His  own  authority  that  the  laws  of 
nature  are  not  necessarily  immutable.  He  who 
was  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  —  the  "  Word 
by  whom  all  things  were  made,"  —  did  not,  when 
He  dwelt  on  the  earth,  give  us  to  understand 
that  the  Creator  was  unable  to  act  in  any  man- 
ner different  from  that  order  which  it  is  His 
beneficent  pleasure  generally  to  observe.  He 
walked  on  the  water,  —  was  that  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  specific  gravity  ?  He  stilled  the 
tempest  by  a  word,  —  does  meteorology  recognize 
such  a  force?  He  cleansed  the  leper,  he  cured 
the  blind,  by  a  touch,  by  a  word,  —  was  this  in 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  31 


accordance  with  medical  experience  ?  "  Lazarus  ! 
come  forth ! "  —  the  dead  man  arose  !  He  him- 
self arose  from  the  grave  the  third  day,  —  was 
not  this  altogether  beyond  our  experience  of  the 
action  of  natural  laws?  We  must  believe  this 
greatest  miracle  of  all  if  we  are  Christians.  Our 
religion  is  a  religion  of  truth,  but  it  is  based  on 
supernatural  facts.  "  If  Christ  be  not  risen,  your 
faith  is  vain ; "  but  if  Christ  rose  from  the  dead, 
—  since  He  is  "the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
for  ever,"  —  He  is  as  able  now  as  He  was  then 
to  act  in  other  methods  than  those  which  are 
understood  as  the  order  of  nature.  No  one  who 
believes  the  gospel  history  can  doubt  that  He  to 
whom  we  pray  is  still  able  to  calm  the  tempest, 
heal  the  sick,  and  raise  the  dead. 

Prayer  has  been  objected  to  on  the  ground  of 
its  presumption.  To  ask  for  something  which 
would  not  otherwise  have  taken  place,  is  regarded 
as  implying  that  we  can  improve  the  plans  of  the 


32  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

All-wise  Disposer  of  events.  Is  it  not  absurd  to 
suppose  we  can  make  things  better  for  ourselves 
by  prayer? 

Many  a  metaphysical  and  many  a  theological 
difficulty,  which  cannot  be  easily  met  by  logic, 
has  been  annihilated  by  the  application  of  com- 
mon-sense maxims  and  the  experience  of  daily 
life.  So  in  this  case.  We  do  not  deny  the  pre- 
established  order  of  things,  and  the  minute  fore- 
knowledge which  implies  the  actual  certainty  of 
what  is  fore-known ;  yet  all  who  are  not  bereft 
of  their  senses  act  as  if  they  could,  by  prudence 
and  diligence,  make  life  j^leasanter  than  it  would 
otherwise  be.  Does  any  one  practically  deny 
this?  Suppose  a  trader  were  to  say,  —  "All 
things  are  arranged  in  the  best  way  by  God.  By 
no  efforts  of  mine  can  they  be  improved ;  it  would 
be  presumptuous  in  me  to  make  the  attempt.  If 
my  business  is  to  prosper,  it  will  prosper ;  and  if 
not,  my  failure  will  be  for  some  good.     I  shall 


EFFICACY    OF    PRAYER.  .     33 

not,  therefore,  trouble  myself  to  collect  the  money 
owmg  me  so  as  to  meet  my  obligations ;  and  I 
shall  not  examine  the  quality  of  the  goods  I  am 
purchasing;  and  I  shall  do  nothing  to  secure 
customers."  Or  another  may  say,  —  "I  feel 
symptoms  of  a  disease  likely  to  give  me  great 
pain,  and  to  cut  short  my  life ;  but  it  would  be 
presumption  to  think  that  by  any  efforts  of  mine 
I  can  improve  upon  the  arrangements  of  God ;  so 
I  shall  take  no  remedies,  and  consult  no  physi- 
cian." Poor  fellow  !  the  sooner  your  friends  take 
care  of  you  the  better ;  for  evidently  you  ought 
not  to  be  left  at  large !  If  every  one  of  sane 
mind  acts  as  if  he  considered  that  by  his  own 
efforts  he  can  make  things  better  for  himself,  is  it 
presumption  in  us  to  think  that  God  can  make 
things  better  for  us  in  answer  to  prayer,  — prayer 
which  He  himself  has  encouraged  us  to  present  ? 
The  principal  objection  to  prayer  for  direct 
benefits  is  based  on  what  is  regarded  as  the  uni- 
3 


34  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

form  operation  of  natural  laws.  These,  we  are 
told,  are  iindeviating  in  their  action,  so  that  it  is 
unreasonable  to  expect  answers  to  j^rayer  which 
imply  any  alteration  in  what  otherwise  would 
have  taken  place.  But  the  Bible  abounds  in 
instances  of  such  prayers  being  answered.  This 
subject  is  so  interwoven  wdth  the  entire  sacred 
history,  tliat  it  is  impossible  to  eliminate  it  and 
treat  the  book  apart  from  it.  It  is  not  accidental 
to  it,  but  essential.  If  the  book  is  not  to  be 
trusted  in  what  it  teaches  respecting  prayer,  it  is 
essentially  defective,  and  cannot  be  trusted  as  a 
guide.  It  is  impossible  at  the  same  time  to  rev- 
erence the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God  and  deny 
the  reasonableness  and  efficacy  of  prayer.  If  our 
opponents  are  right,  the  Bible  is  wrong.  If  we 
accept  their  pliilosophy,  we  cannot  retain  script- 
ural Christianity. 

Let  us  recall  a  few  instances  given  us  in  the 
sacred  records,  and   notice   the   variety   of  the 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  35 

cases  in  which  prayer  is  said  to  have  been  effica- 
cious. 

Abraham  prayed,  and  God  healed  Abimelech, 
his  wife,  and  her  maidens ;  he  prayed  for  Sodom, 
and  the  city  would  have  been  saved  had  ten 
righteous  men  been  found  there.  Eliezer  "  prayed 
in  his  heart,"  and  Rebekah  presented  herself  as 
Isaac's  bride.  Isaac  "  entreated  the  Lord  for  his 
wife,  and  Rebekah  conceived."  Jacob  wrestled 
with  the  angel,  and  w^as  commended  as  having 
power  with  God ;  he  prayed,  and  was  saved  from 
the  wrath  of  Esau ;  he  thanked  God  at  Bethel  for 
having  answered  his  prayers.  The  Israelites 
prayed,  and  the  Lord  heard  their  groaning. 
Moses  prayed,  and  the  Red  Sea  was  divided,  the 
manna  fell,  and  the  serpent-bitten  people  were 
healed.  Joshua  prayed,  and  God  gave  him 
victory  at  Ai.  Hannah  prayed,  and  Samuel  was 
born.  Samson  prayed,  and  water  sprang  forth 
to  revive  him.     Samuel  prayed,  and  God  thun- 


36  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

dered  at  Mizpeh.  David  prayed,  and  records  his 
experience,  —  "  The  righteous  cry,  and  the  Lord 
heareth,  and  delivereth  him  out  of  all  his 
troubles."  Solomon  prayed,  and  God  gave  him 
wisdom.  Elijah  prayed,  and  no  rain  fell  during 
three  years  and  six  months ;  he  prayed,  and  the 
heavens  gave  rain  and  the  earth  brought  forth 
her  fruit ;  he  prayed,  and  fire  came  down  to  con- 
sume the  sacrifice.  Elisha  prayed,  and  life 
returned  to  the  son  of  the  Shunemite.  Hezekiah 
prayed,  and  was  healed  of  his  sickness ;  he  prayed, 
and  the  army  of  Sennacherib  was  destroyed. 
Daniel  prayed,  and  he  understood  the  dream 
and  the  interpretation ;  he  prayed,  and  while  yet 
on  his  knees,  the  angel  Gabriel,  "being  caused 
to  fly  swiftly,  touched  him  about  the  time  of  the 
evening  oblation."  The  people  of  Nineveh 
prayed,  and  the  destruction  threatened  was 
averted.  Jonah  prayed,  and  was  rescued  from 
the  dej)ths  of  the  sea.      Nehemiah  prayed,  and 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  37 

found  favor  with  Artaxerxes.  The  Apostles 
prayed  to  be  directed  in  the  choice  of  a  colleague. 
Peter  prayed,  and  Tabitha  arose.  Cornelius 
prayed,  and  Peter  was  sent  to  him.  The  church 
prayed,  and  an  angel  delivered  Peter  from  his 
dungeon.  Paul  and  Silas  prayed,  and  an  earth- 
quake opened  the  prison  doors.  The  Apostles 
bid  us  "pray  without  ceasing,"  and  assure  us 
that,  "  the  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous 
man  availeth  much."  Above  all,  Jesus,  as  man, 
prayed.  He  "  continued  all  night  in  prayer." 
In  Gethsemane  he  reiterated  the  earnest  appeal, 
—  '*  Father,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me ; "  and  He 
taught  us  that  "  men  ought  always  to  pray,  and 
not  to  faint." 

Surely  such  examples  as  these,  gathered  from 
one  end  of  the  book  to  the  other,  clearly  prove 
that  the  Bible  teaches  the  efficacy,  and,  there- 
fore, the  reasonableness  of  prayer. 

An  apology  has  been  made  for  prayer  by  limit- 


38  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

ing  its  sjihere  of  operation.  There  are  two 
spheres,  —  the  physical  and  the  spiritual.  In  the 
former,  the  laws  of  nature  operate  with  undevi- 
ating  regularity.  Here,  we  are  told,  prayer  is 
ineffectual,  and  therefore  unreasonable.  But  in 
the  latter,  prayer  may  be  offered  with  a  reason- 
able expectation  of  success.  We  may  ask  for 
mental  enlightenment,  for  moral  aid,  for  sj^iritual 
comfort,  and  we  shall  not  ask  in  vain :  but  we 
may  not  ask  for  beneiits  which  would  involve 
any  intervention  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature, 
in  regard  to  the  weather,  or  health,  the  safety  of 
property,  or  the  security  and  duration  of  life. 
All  will  admit  that  there  are  some  facts  in  the 
natural  world  which  are  regarded  as  unsuitable 
for  prayer.  But  because  no  one,  for  example, 
would  pray  that  the  year  might  be  lengthened, 
or  the  seasons  changed,  or  the  duration  of  life  be 
doubled,  it  does  not  follow  that  there  is  no  place 
for  prayer  within  tlie  domain  of  natural  law.    The 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  39 

distinction  has,  we  admit,  been  made  in  the  sup- 
posed interest  of  religion,  —  but  it  seems  like 
destroying  an  essential  outwork  to  preserve  the 
citadel,  —  or,  rather,  like  surrendering  one  part  of 
the  citadel  itself  in  order  to  defend  the  rest. 

There  are  three  replies  to  this  theory.  First 
—  God  is  equally  supreme  in  both  spheres.  He 
is  equally  able  to  do  all  things,  both  in  the  world 
of  matter  and  of  mind.  Secondly  —  The  two 
cannot  be  separated.  Thoughts  and  emotions 
influence  matter.  A  change  of  opinion  and  feel- 
ing prompts  a  man  to  act  on  outward  things,  so 
as  to  change  their  condition.  My  appeal  to  a 
fellow-creature  may  cause  a  Are  to  be  extinguished 
or  a  life  to  be  saved.  May  I  not  then  appeal  to 
God,  who  can  act  through  mind  upon  matter? 
Thirdly  —  The  Bible  makes  no  such  distinction. 
The  cases  just  enumerated  deal  alike  with  the 
material  and  the  spiritual.  The  healing  of 
Abimelech,  the  fall  of  the  manna,  the  birth  of 


40  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

Samuel,  the  raising   of  the  widow's   son,  were 
events  in  the  sphere  of  natural  laws. 

David  was  eminently  a  man  of  prayer.  Beauti- 
fully he  describes  its  efficacy  in  Psalm  cvii.  Those 
who  wander  in  the  wilderness  cry  to  the  Lord, 
and  He  brings  them  to  a  city  where  they  may 
safely  dwell.  The  sick  who  abhor  all  manner  of 
meat  appeal  to  Him,  and  He  sends  His  word  and 
heals  them.  The  sailors,  mounting  to  the  heavens 
and  descending  to  the  depths,  ci-y  to  the  Lord 
in  their  trouble,  and  He  bringeth  them  to  their 
desired  haven.  These  are  surely  cases  within 
the  natural  sphere.  Solomon  prayed  in  the 
spiritual  sphere  when  he  asked  for  wisdom  ;  but 
in  the  exercise  of  that  wisdom  he  prayed  at  the 
consecration  of  the  temple  in  reference  to  bene- 
fits in  the  physical  sphere,  about  which  some  of 
our  philosophers,  and  perhaps  some  of  our  theolo- 
gians, would  hesitate.  They  would  not  pray  for 
rain  in  times  of  drought,  nor  for  health  in  seasons 


EFFICACY    OF    PRAYER.  41 

of  pestilence.  In  many  things  they  may  know 
more  than  Solomon,  but  we  prefer  his  wisdom 
when  he  prays,  —  "when  there  is  no  rain — if 
there  be  fimine  —  if  there  be  pestilence  —  what 
prayer  and  supplication  soever  be  made  by  any 
man,  hear  Thou  in  heaven  thy  dwelling  place,  and 
forgive  "  (the  spiritual  spliere)  "  and  do  ! "  (the 
natural  sphere). 

Our  Saviour  gave  us  a  comprehensive  model  of 
prayer,  which,  as  might  be  expected,  chiefly  relates 
to  the  spiritual  sphere.  But  in  it  is  one  petition 
which  comprehends  all  our  temporal  necessities, 
of  whatsoever  kind,  and  thus  encourages  us  to 
pray  in  the  physical  sphere.  "  Give  us  this  day 
our  daily  bread."  He  also  taught  us  "  always  to 
pray  and  not  to  faint."  Not  many  would  regard 
as  an  improvement  such  an  emendation  as  "  He 
taught  a  parable  to  this  end,  that  men  ought 
always  to  pray  in  the  spiritual  sphere  only,  and 
not  in  the  natural  sphere."  This  is  not  the  letter, 
and  we  cannot  accept  it  as  the  interpretation. 


42  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

The  Apostles,  whom  their  Lord  specially 
endowed  to  develop  and  teach  the  truths  of  His 
kingdom,  exhort  us,  without  any  such  distinction, 
to  "  pray  without  ceasing."  There  is  an  injunc- 
tion which  leaves  no  room  for  doubt  on  the  sub- 
ject. "  Be  careful  for  nothing,  but  in  every  thing, 
by  prayer  and  supplication,  make  your  requests 
known  unto  God."  By  using  the  same  word  in 
both  clauses,  the  argument  is  the  more  obvious. 
"  In  every  thing  be  without  anxiety  ;  but  in  every 
thing  pray."  Those  things  which  make  us  anxious 
are  the  things  we  are  to  make  known  to  God. 
What  are  those  things  ?  Are  they  spiritual  or 
natural  ?  Is  it  not  our  estate,  business,  health, 
life,  or  friends,  about  which  we  are  anxious?  But 
in  all  these  things,  we  are  told  to  be  without 
care.  Why  ?  Because  we  may  cast  our  care  on 
God.  But  if  these  things,  belonging  to  the  natu- 
ral sphere,  are  beyond  the  region  of  rational 
prayer,  the  cure  prescribed  for  care  is  not  avail- 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  43 

able ;  we  must  still  be  careful  or  anxious  about 
them.  But  we  are  told  not  to  be  anxious,  because 
we  may  carry  our  anxieties  in  prayer  to  God ; 
therefore,  as  the  anxiety  arises  in  the  natural 
sphere,  and  the  remedy  is  prayer,  the  prayer  also 
is  in  the  same  natural  sphere.  About  every  thing 
which  may  cause  us  anxiety,  we  are  bidden  by 
divine  authority  to  pray. 

We  may  affirm,  without  hesitation,  that  no 
such  distinction  as  that  which  has  been  suggested 
is  hinted  at  in  the  Bible.  A  denial  of  the  rear- 
sonableness  and  efficacy  of  prayer  is  a  denial  of 
Bible  religion.  If  the  Scriptures  are  the  Word 
of  God,  —  if  Christianity  is  divine,  —  we  may  say, 
if  religion,  whatever  its  form,  is  any  thing  more 
than  a  name,  it  is  reasonable  to  pray. 

That  nature  can  contradict  Christianity  is 
impossible,  if  God  is  the  author  of  both.  We 
grant  that  science  may  contradict  theology. 
But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  while  both 


44  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

are  occupied  about  what  is  divine,  both  are 
themselves  human,  and  therefore  fallible.  Sci- 
ence is  human  knowledge  of  divine  facts  in 
nature,  and  theology  is  human  knowledge  of 
divine  truths  in  revelation.  Our  science  both 
of  natural  facts  and  revealed  truth  may  be  defec- 
tive, and  thus  contradictions  may  result  which 
only  an  amended  science  can  remove.  We  are 
apt  so  much  to  love  our  knowledge  as  to  confound 
it  with  absolute  truth.  If  science  contradicts 
theology,  it  does  not  follow  that  nature  contra- 
dicts revelation.  Our  science  of  nature  may  be 
defective.  Further  discoveries,  a  larger  induc- 
tion, a  truer  theory,  will  remove  the  discrepancy. 
If  not,  then  our  science  of  revelation  must  be 
mistaken.  A  more  correct  interpretation  of  the 
book,  either  of  nature  or  revelation,  or  both, 
\\\\\  reveal  the  harmony  which  must  exist  between 
the  works  and  words  of  the  one  Great  Author  of 
all  truth. 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  45 

Meanwhile,  it  is  not  good  to  be  angry  even 
with  those  who  may  seem  with  malicious  intent 
to  assail  our  most  cherished  beliefs.  It  was  not 
wise  of  the  clown  to  kill  the  ass  because  it  drank 
the  water  which  reflected  the  moon.  The  moon, 
with  calmness  undisturbed,  still  ruled  the  night. 
A  few  burning  weeds  may  produce  smoke  enough 
to  hide  the  stars,  but  the  stars  are  shining  all  the 
same.  It  is  not  wise  to  vex  and  weary  ourselves 
by  angry  denunciations  of  the  smoke,  which  will 
soon  pass  off"  without  our  labor. 

Let  us  hope  that  men  of  science  generally  have 
no  such  motive  in  the  disproof  of  Christianity. 
Many  of  them  are  devout  believers,  and  while 
prosecuting  their  investigations,  on  principles 
l^urely  scientific,  do  so  in  the  full  confidence  that 
the  result  will  confirm  and  illustrate  the  truths 
of  religion.  And  if  there  should  be  some  so  hos- 
tile to  Christianity  as  to  prosecute  their  investi- 
gations in  the  hope  of  disparaging  it,  while  we 


46  THE    REASONABLENESS   AND 

lament  their  spirit,  we  will,  nevertheless,  value 
their  labors.  The  bad  motive  will  not  affect 
the  good  result,  —  and  the  result  must  be  good, 
so  far  as  it  throws  fresh  light  on  the  works  of 
God. 

There  are  many  persons  who  may  seem  hostile 
to  religious  truth  who  are  not  really  so.  They 
are  sceptics,  but  not  infidels.  They  do  not  deny 
and  denounce  the  faith.  But  they  scrutinize, 
criticise,  investigate  it;  they  search  beneath  it 
and  around  it ;  they  analyze  and  test  it ;  they  put 
searching  questions  to  the  defenders  of  it,  and 
demand  explanations  of  the  difficulties  which 
beset  their  reception  of  it.  Such  scepticism  may 
result  from  high  intelligence  earnestly  seeking 
the  truth.  It  is  often  faith  in  the  making.  Such 
sceptics  may  become  the  soundest  believers.  Let 
us  not  then  be  angry  at  objections  which  may 
result,  not  from  hatred,  but  love  of  religion.  Per- 
haps they  are  urged  in  hope  that  they  will  be 


EFFICACY    OF    PRAYER.  47 

refuted.  Many  j^ersons  lament  that  they  cannot 
receive  the  truth  in  the  simplicity  of  children. 
They  regard  with  envy  the  humble  believer  who 
derives  peace  and  joy  from  a  firm  reliance  upon 
the  God  of  the  Bible.  Instead  of  desiring  to 
shake,  they  would  give  all  they  possess  to  share 
such  faith.  Well  I  remember  an  aged  unbeliever 
saying,  at  the  death-bed  of  a  former  companion 
who  w^as  rejoicing  in  hope  through  Christ,  "I 
would  give  all  the  world  to  feel  as  you  feel."  He 
did  so  eventually,  and  himself  died  happy  in  the 
faith  of  Christ.  Let  us  then  encourage  rather 
than  repress  the  utterance  of  doubt.  Better  that 
it  be  fepoken  and  refuted  than  hidden  and  matured. 
If  a  young  man  appeals  to  his  minister  or  his 
parents  for  an  explanation  of  a  difficulty,  or  even 
if  he  appears  in  the  attitude  of  an  assailant  of  the 
faith,  it  is  most  unwise  to  meet  him  with  a  frown, 
and  reply  with  a  reproof  Far  better  for  him  to 
be  mentally  alive  and  to  be  inquiring  about  sub- 


48  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

jects  of  supreme  importance,  though  as  yet  uncon- 
vinced, than  to  be  absorbed  in  the  greedy  quest 
for  gold,  or  the  frivolous  pursuit  of  pleasure. 
That  question  which  sounds  so  sceptical  may  be 
the  birth-cry  of  struggling  belief  God  grant 
that  if  any  are  urging  objections  in  honest  doubt 
they  may  in  some  measure  have  those  objections 
met  by  these  plain  words  on  the  reasonableness 
of  prayer. 

Another  objection  urged  against  prayer  is,  that 
its  being  answered  implies  a  change  in  God.  If 
He  has  wisely  determined  what  to  do,  and  then 
changes  His  determination  in  answer  to  prayer, 
it  would  show  that  He  is  not  "  without  variable- 
ness," and  that  His  first  and  His  second  purj^oses 
could  not  both  have  been  the  best. 

But  may  there  not  be  an  unchanged  purpose 
with  changed  methods  ?  A  sailor  wishes  to  reach 
Liverpool  from  New  York.  Suppose  with  chang- 
ing winds  he  should  keep  the  same  tack,  and 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  49 

never  alter  the  ship's  course,  —  would  he  reach 
his  port?  Because  his  purpose  is  fixed,  his 
methods  must  change.  What  is  the  difference 
between  the  quack  doctor  and  the  skilful  physi- 
cian ?  The  former  gives  the  same  medicine  to 
differing  patients,  and  continues  to  give  it  to  the 
same  patient  however  his  symptoms  vary.  He 
does  not  change.  But  the  skilful  physician,  with 
a  fixed  purpose,  changes  his  methods  according 
to  the  condition  of  his  patient. 

A  parent  has  a  philosophical  child  who  says, 
"My  father  and  mother  have  made  all  their  plans 
for  my  training.  It  would  be  presumjjtion  in  me 
to  suggest  any  alteration ;  therefore,  I  will  ask 
nothing  from  them."  Parents  would  not  like 
this.  The  house  would  be  dull  when  the  children 
never  went  to  the  parent  for  help  in  difiiculty, 
comfort  in  trouble,  and  the  supply  of  some  real 
or  supposed  want.  Desiring  the  expression  of 
the  child's  wishes  and  confidence,  the  parent 
4 


50  THE    REASONABLENESS   AND 

might  resolve  to  change  his  treatment,  so  that  the 
child  might  be  led  to  consider  that  it  would  per- 
haps be  for  its  advantage  to  offer  some  request. 
But  we  will  not  pursue  this  illustration.  There 
never  were  such  philosophical  children.  They 
must  grow  older  before  they  attain  this  wisdom. 
But  there  are  disobedient  children  ;  and  if  you  are 
wise  parents,  with  unchanged  love,  you  alter  your 
treatment,  you  give  no  tender  word  of  endear- 
ment, no  kind  caress.  Your  object  is  soon  gained. 
The  child  can  bear  no  longer  the  seeming  es- 
trangement, but  comes  with  tears  of  genuine 
contrition  and  begs  forgiveness.  Then  you  take 
that  child  to  your  arms  and  cover  its  cheek  with 
kisses,  and  make  it  soon  forget  your  displeasure. 
You  alter  your  method  with  your  child  according 
to  its  altering  moods,  because  you  do  not  alter  in 
your  loving  purpose  to  promote  its  welfare. 

So  afflictions  are  a  needful  discipline.     Sorrows 
are  sent  or  permitted  for  our  welfare ;  and  when 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  51 

we  pray  with  submission,  —  when  we  come  to 
our  Father  with  j^enitence  and  submissiveness  of 
spirit,  asking  succor  from  Him,  —  this  may  be 
the  very  state  of  mind  which  alone  was  needed 
to  render  the  bestowment  of  the  boon  a  blessing 
indeed.  To  withhold  it  in  the  absence  of  such 
prayer,  and  to  give  it  in  response,  may  be  equally 
wise  and  equally  kind.  The  constancy  of  our 
heavenly  Fathei's  love  is  illustrated  rather  than 
disparaged  by  such  changes  in  the  treatment  of 
His  children.  The  sun's  rays  are  always  shin- 
ing in  lines  of  perfect  rectitude.  They  do  not 
vary  in  their  direction ;  in  them  there  are  no 
deflections.  But  we  are  not  always  within  the 
line  of  the  light,  and  prayer  brings  us  into  the 
range.  It  was  no  change  in  God  bat  in  the  peo- 
ple who  repented,  when  they  heard  the  warning, 
— "  Yet  forty  days  and  Nineveh  shall  be  de- 
stroyed." It  has  been  well  observed  that  it  was 
as  though  one  said, —  "Yet  forty  steps,  and  you 


52  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

will  fall  over  the  precipice."  But  if  the  forty 
steps  are  not  taken,  the  precipice  is  escaped.  "  O 
wicked  man,  thou  shalt  surely  die."  But  if  the 
wicked  man  forsakes  his  wickedness,  he  shall 
surely  live  and  not  die.  This  is  a  change,  not  in 
God,  but  in  the  sinner. 

O  men  of  science !  all  honor  to  you  in  your 
own  sphere.  Show  us  the  I5eauty,  the  wasdom, 
the  beneficence  of  God,  by  showing  us  the  order 
that  pervades  His  works.  But  do  not  shut  Him 
out  of  His  own  universe.  Do  not  say  that  your 
experiments  wdth  microscope  and  telescoj)e  in- 
clude all  the  facts  of  the  universe,  when  the  facts 
of  Christianity  and  the  facts  of  consciousness  are 
not  within  yom*  induction.  These  are  facts 
which  are  incapable  of  being  subjected  to  scien- 
tific scrutiny.  God  will  not,  at  your  bidding, 
come  into  your  crucible,  cross  the  field  of  your 
telescope,  or  enter  the  wing  of  some  hospital 
which  you  may  choose  to  designate  for  experi- 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  53 

meriting  upon  the  Almighty.  "  There  are  a 
thousand  things  in  heaven  and  earth  not  dreamt 
of  in  your  philosophy^"* 

To  use  the  beautiful  words  of  Tennyson, — 

"  More   things   are  wrought  by  prayer   than   this    world 
dreams  of ; 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer, 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friends  ? 
For  so  the  whole  round  wt>i4d-is  every  way  /'-l-v^C-^^ 

Bound  by  gold  chains  around  the  throne  of  God." 

Yes !  what  better  than  sheep  and  goats  if  we 
do  not  pray  ?  But  why  pray,  if,  like  sheep  and 
goats,  we  are  subjected  to  the  irresistible  action 
of  physical  laws  ?  Why  pray  if  we  are  but  as  so 
many  sparrows  flitting  our  little  life  from  tree  to 
tree,  with  no  intelligent  loving  guardianship  from 
One  who  is  above  nature  ?  He  has  said,  "  Ye  are 
of  more  value  than  many  sparrows."  Yet  even 
the  sparrows  are  the  objects  of  His  care.     They 


54  THE    REASONABLENESS   AND 

fall,  but  not  one  of  them  falls  unnoticed  by  our 
Father.     Much  more  does  He  watch  over  us ! 

O  the  difference  between  Christianity  and  the 
philosophy  which  puts  us  on  a  level  with  sheep 
and  goats  and  sparrows,  —  which  even  reduces 
us  to  the  condition  of  inorganic  atoms,  —  which 
tells  us  that  equally  with  every  drop  of  water  and 
every  grain  of  sand  we  are  the  helpless  victims 
of  mere  physical  forces,  which,  irrespective  of  any 
wishes  and  prayers  of  ours,  must  have  their  sway, 
whether  in  the  process  we  be  crowned  or  crushed. 
You  may  boast  your  superior  endowments,  — 
your  intellect,  genius,  will,  —  but  exalted  as  you 
may  be  above  the  film  of  dust  that  settles  on 
your  hand,  you  are  equally  wdth  it  in  the  grasp 
of  an  iron  necessity,  from  which  you  cannot 
escape,  and  with  which  there  is  no  God  to  inter- 
fere. O  the  difference  between  such  a  represen- 
tation of  humanity  and  that  which  says,  "  You 
are  all  the  children  of  the  Most  Hisjh.     However 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  55 

poor,  helpless,  obscure,  you  are  equally  with  the 
ricli  and  the  great  the  objects  of  His  loving  care. 
There  is  not  a  lonely  wanderer  unwatched  by 
Him.  There  is  not  a  sufferer  to  whose  cries  He 
does  not  listen.  There  is  not  a  little  child  to 
whose  voice  He  does  not  bend  His  ear.  He  is 
mightier  than  the  mighty  waves  of  the  sea.  The 
stormy  wind  is  His  servant  fulfilling  His  word. 
The  sun  and  stars  shine  at  His  command.  The 
universe  obeys  His  bidding.  To  Him  all  things 
are  possible.  And  He  is  Love.  He  watches 
over  His  children;  He  listens  to  their  prayers ; 
He  delights  to  do  them  good  ;  they  are  precious 
in  His  esteem ;  the  very  hairs  of  their  head  are  all 
numbered ;  and  in  all  things  by  prayer  and  suppli- 
cation they  may  make  their  requests  known  to 
Him."  Which  of  these  philosophies  does  the 
human  heart  feel  to  be  most  in  accordance  with 
its  nature,  its  wants,  its  yearnings  ? 

Prayer  is  a  natural  instinct.    Arguments  against 


56  THE    REASONABLENESS   AND 

it  may  be  multiplied  a  hundred-fold,  but  nature 
will  ever  be  stronger  than  logic.  To  the  end  of 
time  objections,  though  unanswered,  will  be 
powerless  to  prevent  prayer.  Every  child  begins 
life  with  prayer.  The  parent  is  in  the  place  oi 
God  to  it.  By  its  infxnt  cries,  by  the  motion  of 
its  little  hands,  by  its  look  of  fear,  or  desire,  or 
love,  it  prnys.  And  the  parent  delights  in  the 
expression  of  the  child's  dependence  and  confi- 
dence. How  promptly  the  father  flies  to  the 
succor  of  his  imperilled  boy.  How  the  mother 
folds  to  her  breast,  with  fresh  endearments,  the 
babe  whose  cry  is  its  prayer  for  comfort.  And 
God,  who  created  the  parental  and  filial  instinct, 
bids  us  from  what  is  human  conceive  of  what  is 
divine.  It  is  not  a  mere  figure  of  speech  when 
we  are  told,  "  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  His  children 
so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  Him."  "  As 
one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will  I  com- 
fort you."     From  our  earliest  infancy  we  are  pre- 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  57 

pared  to  respond  to  the  voice  of  our  Father  in 
heaven.  "  Call  upon  me  in  the  day  of  trouble 
and  I  will  deliver  you." 

Even  those  who  know  not  the  happiness  of  a 
life  of  habitual  prayer  betake  themselves  to  it  as 
a  refuge  in  sudden  and  great  calamities.  When 
bending  beneath  some  overwhelming  sorrow, 
trembling  in  view  of  some  enormous  and  impend- 
ing danger,  the  most  irreligious  pray.  Whole 
nations  have  suspended  their  pleasures  and  their 
toils  to  bend  the  knee  to  God.  Infidelity  itself 
often  gives  way  under  pressure. 

"  But  is  there  proof  in  mere  desire 
For  that  to  which  my  hopes  aspire  1 
May  I  thus  trust  my  nature  weak  1 ' 

'Tis  God  in  thee  doth  speak ! 
From  God  that  heavenly  instinct  came: 
He  wrote  on  thee  His  holy  name. 
That  conscious  need,  those  yearnings  strong, 

He  gave,  and  will  not  wrong." 

What  a  dull,  insupportable  life  would  this  be 
to  multitudes,  if  they  could  not  pour^ 

JUlL  ^ 


58  THE   REASONABLENESS  AND 

sorrows  into  the  ear  of  One  who  they  believe 
listens  to  their  supplications,  and  is  able  and  will- 
ing to  help  them!  How  many  there  are  who 
would  faint  under  the  burden  of  their  trials,  who 
could  no  longer  prosecute  their  weary  task,  who 
"Would  be  utterly  unfit  to  cope  with  their  daily 
difficulties,  but  for  the  comfort  they  find  in  prayer ! 
Shall  they  be  robbed  of  this  comfort?  Yonder 
is  a  mother  who  has  just  parted  from  her  only 
son.  She  stood  on  the  pier  watching  the  waving 
of  his  handkerchief  till  tears  blinded  her  eyes, 
and  the  vessel  was  lost  in  the  distance,  —  now 
with  bursting  heart  she  seeks  her  chamber,  and 
with  earnest  cries  beseeches  Him,  who  is  the 
Lord  of  the  ocean,  to  give  charge  to  the  winds 
and  waves  respecting  her  son.  "  Foolish  woman ! 
don't  you  know  that  the  winds  and  weaves  are 
subjected  to  the  irresistible  action  of  physical 
law?"  There  was  a  little  girl  in  the  speaker's 
Sunday   school,  who  w^as   overheard    the   other 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  59 

day  praying  thus :  "  O  God,  make  me  a  good  girl, 
and  bless  father  and  mother ;  and  do  please  send 
father  a  little  work  soon."  Silly  child !  don't  you 
know  that  work  and  wages  are  under  the  control 
of  the  laws  of  suj^ply  and  demand,  and  are  beyond 
the  sphere  of  prayer? 

Alas!  for  the  lonely  wanderers  in  crowded 
cities;  alas!  for  the  exile  far  from  home;  alas! 
for  the  broken-hearted  to  w^hom  life  has  no  more 
charm;  alas!  for  the  injured  struggling  against 
wrong;  alas!  for  the  tempted,  fighting  the  fierce 
fight  for  honesty  and  virtue  and  truth  ;  alas !  for 
the  bereaved;  alas!  for  the  sick;  alas!  for  the 
poor,  if  they  may  not  take  their  sorrows  to  God, 
and  expect  help  and  comfort  from  above.  And 
alas !  too,  for  many  in  seeming  prosperity  whose 
wealth  and  position  cannot  satisfy  the  craving  of 
their  souls;  and  alas!  for  many  of  our  greatest 
merchants,  and  lawyers,  and  physicians,  and 
statesmen,  who  feel  they  could  not  perform  their 


60  THE   REASONABLENESS  AND 

responsible  duties,  but  must  give  way  under  the 
pressure,  but  for  the  thought  derived  from 
prayer !  Without  this  solace,  how  many  a  great 
intellect  Avould  fail,  —  how  many  a  valuable  life 
would  prematurely  close ! 

"  O  Thou  who  driest  the  mourner's  tear, 
How  dark  this  world  would  be, 
If,  pierced  by  sin  and  sorrow  here, 
We  could  not  fly  to  Thee  ! 

"  When  joy  no  longer  sootiies  or  cheers, 

And  e'en  the  hope  that  tlirew 

A  moment's  sparkle  o'er  our  tears, 

Is  dimmed  and  vanished  too  ; 

"  0,  who  could  brave  life's  stormy  doom. 
Did  not  Tiiy  wing  of  love 
Come  brightly  wafting  through  the  gloom. 
Our  prayer-branch  from  above. 

"  Then  sorrow,  touched  by  Thee,  grows  bright 
With  more  than  rapture's  ray ; 
As  darkness  shows  us  worlds  of  light, 
We  never  saw  by  day." 

—  T.  MOOBE. 

We  do  not  always  obtain  just  what  we  ask; 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  61 

but  we  pray  to  One  who,  we  believe,  is  able  to 
give  us  any  thing.  His  ability,  however,  is  di- 
rected by  wisdom  and  love.  We  cannot  judge 
of  what  is  absolutely  best,  whether  as  regards  the 
universe  at  large,  or  our  own  personal  interests. 
But  we  may  be  sure  He  always  hears  us,  though 
we  may  not  see  how  the  answer  comes.  We 
cannot  pray  without  deriving  some  benefit.  We 
are  sure  to  be  benefited  indirectly  by  the  influ- 
ence of  such  prayer  on  ourselves ;  we  may  also 
obtain,  if  not  what  we  ask,  something  better. 
We  may  receive  a  blessing  even  in  what  seems  a 
contradiction  to  our  prayers ;  but  we  may  expect, 
and  we  often  do  receive,  the  actual  granting  of 
our  requests.  Why  should  not  prayer  be  an- 
swered as  literally  now  as  in  the  days  of  old  ? 
Is  not  God  the  same  loving  Father?  Has  His 
ear  become  heavy  that  it  cannot  hear,  —  His  arm 
shortened  that  it  cannot  save  ?  The  history  of 
the  church  abounds  in  illustrations  of  the  efli- 


62  THE  REASONABLENESS  AND 

cacy  of  prayer.  Every  one  who  has  lived  a  few 
years  in  its  exercise  possesses  personal  proofs  of 
its  power. 

If  the  preceding  arguments  do  not  carry  con- 
viction to  the  sceptic,  illustrations  will  be  of  little 
value ;  but  they  may  confirm  the  faith  of  those 
who  already  believe.  For  this  purpose  I  refer  to 
a  few  facts  which  have  come  under  my  own 
knowledge.  It  would  be  easy  to  cull  from  histo- 
ries and  biographies  incidents  of  a  much  more 
striking  nature;  but  those  with  which  one  is 
personally  acquainted  more  powerfully  impress 
the  mind,  though  in  themselves  they  may  possess 
inferior  interest. 

On  a  recent  evangelizing  visit  to  Newport,  one 
of  its  citizens  said  to  me :  "  In  yonder  house  dwell 
a  man  and  his  wife  who  recently  needed  a  sum 
of  £30  to  meet  some  payment  the  next  morning. 
Having  failed  in  their  efforts  to  collect  it,  they 
earnestly  prayed  God  to  provide  it.     The  store 


EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER.  63 

was  being  closed  for  the  night  when  a  sea-cap- 
tain knocked  at  the  door  and  asked  for  some 
seamen's  clothes.  The  gas  was  relighted  and 
various  articles  were  selected  ;  the  purchaser  then 
asked  for  the  account,  and  the  money  was  paid,  — 
a  little  more  than  £30."  "A  lucky  accident?" 
The  man  and  his  wife  thanked  their  heavenly 
Father  for  sending  it  in  answer  to  prayer. 

Another  house  was  shown  me.  "In  yonder 
room  lies  the  body  of  a  young  woman,  who, 
though  near  to  death,  seemed  unprepared.  Her 
friends  set  apart  Saturday  evening  for  special 
jjrayer.  Next  morning,  to  one  who  visited  her, 
she  said :  '  Oh,  I  see  it  all  now !  I  see  what  a 
poor  guilty  sinner  I  am  !  but  I  can  trust  in  Jesus 
as  my  Saviour,  and  I  am  not  afraid  to  die  ! '  On 
being  asked  how  and  when  she  began  to  feel 
this,  she  replied :  '  Last  evening  it  seemed  to 
come  to  me,  and  I  understood  all  you  had  said 
to  me!'"  Those  friends  regarded  this  as  an 
encouragement  still  to  pray. 


64  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

Not  many  months  ago,  I  was  visiting  on  his 
dying  bed  John  Cranfield,  son  of  the  South wark 
tailor,  who  was  the  originator  of  ragged  schools, 
under  the  ministry  of  Rowland  Hill.  We  were 
conversing  on  prayer.  He  said :  "  A  remarkable 
instance  occurred  in  connection  with  my  fjither. 
The  former  organist  of  Surrey  Chapel,  Mr. 
Heward,  was  dangerously  ill.  He  was  greatly 
beloved,  and  his  friends  met  for  special  prayer 
that  God  would  spare  his  life.  My  father  on  that 
occasion  was  remarkably  earnest  in  asking  that 
the  life  of  his  friend  might  be  lengthened,  as  in 
the  case  of  Hezekiah.  The  next  day  he  began  to 
recover ;  and  during  fifteen  years  was  a  blessing 
to  his  friends  and  the  church." 

My  brother  told  me  that  when  superintendent 
of  a  Sunday  school  he  felt  a  strong  impulse,  one 
Saturday  evening,  to  call  at  the  house  of  one  of 
the  teachers,  whom  he  had  never  visited  before. 
He  found  his  mother  and  sisters  in  such  evident 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  65 

distress  that  he  inquired  the  cause.  With  much 
reluctance  they  exj^lained  that,  being  unable  to 
pay  their  taxes  their  goods  were  to  be  taken  on 
the  coming  Monday,  and  they  had  been  asking 
S]3ecial  help  from  God  to  save  them  from  a  dis- 
aster which  they  felt  would  be  a  dishonor  to 
religion.  By  the  aid  of  a  few  friends  the  diffi- 
culty was  at  once  met, — but  the  timely  succor 
was  regarded  as  the  divine  response  to  prayer. 

With  that  brother  I  was  once  climbing  the 
Cima  di  Jazzi,  one  of  the  mountains  in  the  chain 
of  Mount  Rosa.  When  nearly  at  the  top,  we 
entered  a  dense  fog.  Presently  our  guides  faced 
right  about  and  grounded  their  axes  on  the  fro- 
zen snow  slope.  My  brother,  seeing  the  slope 
still  beyond,  and  not  knowing  it  was  merely  the 
cornice,  overhanging  a  precijDice  of  several  thou- 
sand feet,  rushed  onward.  I  shall  never  forget 
their  cry  of  agonized  warning.  He  stood  a 
moment  on  the  very  summit,  and  then,  the  snow 
5 


66  THE    REASONABLENESS  AND 

yielding,  he  began  to  ftxll  through.  One  of  the 
guides,  at  great  risk,  had  rushed  after  him,  and, 
seizing  him  by  the  coat,  drew  him  down  to  a 
place  of  safety.  No  one  could  be  nearer  death 
and  yet  escape.  On  his  return  home,  an  invalid 
member  of  his  congregation  told  him  that  she 
had  been  much  in  prayer  for  his  safety,  and  men- 
tioned a  sjDCcial  time  when  she  particularly  was 
earnest,  as  if  imploring  deliverance  from  some 
great  peril.  The  times  corresponded.  Was  not 
that  prayer  instrumental  in  preserving  that  life  ? 

Whilst  preparing  these  pages,  a  clergyman  of 
great  scholarship  and  genius  has  told  me  of  a 
remarkable  answer  to  prayer,  authenticated  by 
three  missionaries  known  to  himself,  who  are 
personally  acquainted  with  the  facts.  A  Prus- 
sian, the  master  of  a  hotel  in  India,  was  anxious 
to  relinquish  his  large  income,  and  labor  as  a 
missionary  among  the  Santil  tribes.  Objection 
was  made  to  him  on  account  of  an  impediment 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  67 

in  his  speech,  which  woiUd  render  him,  in  speak- 
ing a  foreign  language,  incajjable  of  being  under- 
stood. Believing  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  he 
called  together  his  friends  specially  to  ask  that 
his  impediment  might  be  removed.  The  next 
morning  he  presented  himself  again  at  the  Mis- 
sion House,  —  the  impediment  had  gone  :  he  was 
accepted,  relinquislied  his  business,  and  is  now 
preaching  the  gospel  to  the  Santils  in  their  own 
tongue.  Why  should  those  who  believe  the 
narrative  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  regard  such 
a  statement  as  incredible  ? 

My  father,  the  author  of  the  "  Sinners'  Friend," 
narrates  in  liis  Autobiography  a  circumstance 
which  he  often  used  to  speak  of  with  great  emo- 
tion. My  mother  was  very  ill,  and  apparently 
dying.  The  doctor  said  that  now,  if  at  all,  the 
children  might  be  brought  for  her  to  look  at  them 
once  more.  One  by  one  we  were  brought  to  the 
bed-side,  and  her  hand  was  placed  on  our  heads. 


68  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

Then  my  father  bade  her  farewell,  and  she  lay 
motionless,  as  if  soon  to  breathe  her  last.  He 
then  said  to  himself,  "  There  is  yet  one  promise 
I  have  not  pleaded,  — '  If  ye  ask  any  thing  in  my 
name  I  will  do  it.'  "  He  stepped  aside,  and  in  an 
agony  of  soul  exclaimed,  "  O  Lord,  for  the  honor 
of  thy  dear  Son,  give  me  the  life  of  my  wife !  " 
He  could  say  no  more,  and  sank  down  exhausted. 
Just  then  the  nurse  called  him  to  the  bedside 
saying,  —  "  She  has  opened  her  mouth  again,  as  if 
for  food."  Nourishment  was  given,  and  from 
that  time  she  began  to  recover.  The  doctor  said 
it  was  miraculous.  My  father  said  it  was  God 
who  heard  the  prayer  of  His  sorrowing  servant. 
During  fifty  years  that  mother  was  spared  to  her 
family,  and  then  passed  away,  surrounded  by 
children  and  grandchildren,  to  whom  her  example 
and  prayers  had  been  an  invaluable  blessing,  her 
hands  held  by  two  sons,  w^ho  owe  whatever  they 
are  enabled  to  do  in  the  ministry  to  her  influ- 
ence. 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  69 

But  we  must  pause  in  such  narrations.  Facts 
abound  in  every  one's  exj^erience.  We  Avill  not 
give  up  praying,  for  all  that  some  philosophers 
may  say.  Give  up  prayer  ?  Prayer  is  the  pillar 
of  cloud,  beneath  the  shadow  of  which  we  march 
with  vigor  along  a  wilderness  whose  sultry  heat 
would  else  be  intolerable.  Prayer  is  the  pillar  of 
fire,  in  the  light  of  which  we  will  sing  songs  of 
gladness  in  the  valley  whose  darkness  would  else 
appal  and  vanquish  us.  Prayer  is  the  golden 
causeway  uniting  earth  to  heaven,  by  which 
angels  ascend  and  descend  bearing  rich  blessings 
in  response.  Prayer  is  a  telegraphic  wire  stretch- 
ing from  the  heart  to  the  throne  of  God ;  and 
often  are  there  times,  whether  or  not  there  is  an 
outward  answer,  when  we  feel  the  thrill  within  us 
of  heaven's  responsive  vibrations,  and  are  ready 
to  say,  —  "  Yerily  God  hath  heard  me :  He  hath 
attended  to  the  voice  of  my  supplication.  Because 
He  hath  inclined  His  ear  unto  me,  therefore  will 
I  call  upon  Him  as  long  as  I  live." 


70  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

Alas !  how  much  they  lose  who  do  not  pray ! 
How  heavy  the  burden  of  sorrow  when  it  is  not 
thus  lightened !  How  dark,  and  lonely,  and  sad 
the  path  in  which  we  have  not  for  our  companion 
and  guide  the  hearer  of  prayer ! 

But  how  shall  they  who  never  truly  prayed, 
begin  ?  As  the  23ublican,  when  he  smote  upon 
his  breast  saying,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sin- 
ner ! "  Without  waiting  for  correct  views  of 
theology,  —  without  waiting  to  have  every  doubt 
removed  and  every  difficulty  explained, — with- 
out waiting  to  feel  as  much  sorrow  for  sin  as 
others  have  expressed,  or  as,  you  are  convinced, 
ought  to  be  felt  by  yourself,  —  without  comparing 
yourself  with  others  as  being  either  better  or 
worse ;  but  simply  as  a  sinner  needing  mercy, 
apply  to  the  merciful  Father  who  waits  to  wel- 
come His  wandering  children.  Pray  in  the  name 
of  that  Saviour  who  said,  "Him  that  cometh 
unto  me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out." 


EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER.  71 

Then  bring  to  Him  all  your  sorrows  and  all 
your  desires.  But  ever,  chief  of  all,  ask  Him  to 
deliver  you  from  sin,  the  great  adversary  of  the 
soul.  Let  us  be  encouraged  by  that  parable  of 
marvellously  compressed  logical  force,  in  which 
our  Lord  taught  His  disciples  "  always  to  pray 
and  not  to  faint." 

There  was  in  a  city  a  magistrate  whose  office 
was  to  protect  the  weak  against  injustice  and 
violence.  But  he  cared  neither  for  the  authority 
of  God  nor  the  opinion  of  men.  There  was  a 
widow  in  that  city,  —  poor,  solitary,  friendless. 
She  was  suffering  injury  from  some  enemy  whom 
she  was  powerless  to  resist.  So  she  went  to  the 
magistrate  for  protection,  saying,  —  "  Avenge  me 
of  mine  adversary :  save  me  from  my  oppressor." 
For  some  time  the  magistrate  paid  no  attention 
to  her  request.  But  she  went  to  him  again  and 
again,  until  he  was  weary  with  her  importunity, 
and  said  to  himself,  "  Though  I  fear  not  God,  nor 


72  THE   REASONABLENESS   AND 

regard  man,  yet  because  this  widow  troubleth 
me,  I  will  avenge  her,  lest  by  her  continual  com- 
ing she  weary  me."  And  Jesus  said,  "  Hear  what 
the  unjust  judge  saith.  And  shall  not  God  avenge 
his  own  elect,  which  cry  day  and  night  unto  Him, 
though  He  bear  long  with  them  ?  I  tell  you  that 
He  will  avenge  them  speedily." 

This  is  an  argument,  not  of  comparison,  but  of 
contrast.  Because  God  is  so  unlike  the  unjust 
judge  in  character,  and  because  His  elect  are  so 
Tinlike  the  widow  in  condition,  He  will  much 
more  listen  to  them.  There  is  a  double  contrast. 
The  first  is  between  the  judge  and  God.  The 
judge  was  unjust,  disregarding  all  the  claims  of 
righteousness,  violating  his  word,  neglecting  his 
duties,  profaning  his  office.  Yet  he  helped  the 
woman.  How  much  more  will  prayer  be  answered 
by  God,  who  is  righteous  and  true,  whose  province 
it  is  to  help  the  needy,  who  has  promised  succor 
to  those  who  seek  it,  and.  who  must  ever  be  faith- 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  73 

ful  to  His  word.  The  judge  was  unmerciful  as 
well  as  unjust.  He  regarded  his  own  ease  alone. 
Even  when  he  granted  the  widow's  request  it 
was  from  a  selfish  motive.  Yet  he  granted  it. 
How  much  more  will  supplicants  be  answered  by 
Him  who  is  a  tender  Father,  and  who  delighteth 
in  mercy  ? 

There  is  also  a  contrast  between  the  widow 
and  God's  elect.  The  widow  was  evidently  poor, 
friendless,  and  of  no  worldly  rank.  Yet  she 
gained  her  request.  How  much  more  will  God 
help  His  own  elect,  the  aristocracy  of  the  uni- 
verse, His  "  kings  and  priests,"  the  "  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  Lord  God  Almighty ! "  The 
widow  was  answered  in  a  cause  which  had  inter- 
est for  herself  alone.  What  cared  the  judge  for 
her  adversary?  But  God's  elect  appeal  to  Him 
in  a  cause  in  which  He  himself  is  deeply  inter- 
ested, for  their  adversary  is  His  also,  their  deliv- 
erance is  His  honor,  their  safety  is  the  safety  of 


74  EFFICACY    OF   PRAYER. 

His  own  possession,  their  deliverance  is  the  vin- 
dication of  His  own  honor.  The  widow  applied 
to  the  judge  without  invitation, —  how  much 
more  will  they  be  heard  who  are  invited  and 
commanded  to  pray  by  God  himself?  The 
widow  presented  a  petition  drawn  up  by  herself, 
—  but  God's  elect  take  petitions  which  He  has 
inspired  and  recorded  for  their  use.  Will  He  not 
accept  the  prayers  He  himself  has  promj^ted  ? 
The  widow  was  answered,  though  she  stood  alone 
in  the  presence  of  the  judge.  And  will  not  God 
avenge  His  own  elect,  who  never  plead  alone,  but 
at  whose  side  there  standeth  the  well-beloved 
Son  of  God,  who  ever  liveth  to  make  interces- 
sion, and  whom  the  Father  heareth  always ! 

He  knows  what  goes  on  in  the  court  of  heaven, 
for  He  dwells  there.  And  He  it  is  who  taught 
us  "  always  to  pray  and  not  to  faint." 


Cambridge:    Press  of  John  Wilson  &  Son. 


Date  Due 


J 


